Although it has never been as popular outside of Japan, this new instalment has become more ambitious than ever before, looking to complete the assault on the western world that began with its last few titles.
The story takes a much more mature and adult approach to the cliché of clashing worlds and deals with serious issues such as racism and xenophobia. All this while we fall in love with a very special main character duo.
Alphen will be our main character and Shionne will always be with him. They come from different worlds, but both have a special feature: while one of them cannot feel pain, the other one triggers it with a simple touch.
They will be joined throughout the story by a number of sidekicks from equally diverse backgrounds, completing a roster of six classic JRPG characters who will fight against oppression from one of these two worlds over the other.
What's nice is that Tales of Arise tells its story openly and expressively, both in terms of scenery and characters. This instalment comes with the best graphics in the franchise's history, and some of the most impressive visuals in recent years.
This is thanks to the fact that they are no longer tied to previous generations. Unlike Tales of Berseria, released five years ago, which came with greatly reduced visuals when it was also released on PS3.
However, don't think it's all about the graphics. The best thing about Tales of Arise's visuals is the combination of elements and the detailed artwork, especially when it comes to the main characters and monsters.
The combination of a good story, well-developed characters and attractive graphics is good news in itself. Yet, the best part by far comes when it gets to the combat system.
We can now hit much more naturally and regularly, making the real-time action much more spectacular, offering an improved version of its great skill-based fighting system.
Each of the characters has their own basic hits, skills, special hits and even a powerful finishing attack that combines two group members' power to knock opponents into the dust.
This system is immense and there are over 500 skills when you add up the six available characters. However, there is no need to panic. It's easy to get the hang of it, even if it's your first time playing the series.
Simply put, Tales of Arise is the best Tales of of all time. A game that applies its own lessons by camouflaging the franchise's story in the gigantic plot it tries to tell us.
In case you were wondering: you don't need to have played the previous games in the series to enjoy Tales of Arise. Most of the stories are self-contained, so you won't miss anything if you haven't played the previous games.
It is available now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Plus, you have the option to try it out for yourself thanks to the free demo available on the console versions.
A game you can't miss out on!
